Emmerdale fans could see a major character return to the village in summer 2023, producer Jane Hudson has teased.
The soap boss spilled that while no plans are currently in the pipeline for any character to return, she was considering bringing back a particular past resident.
With the team currently plotting June on the ITV soap, months in advance, talks had turned to a character making a comeback.
Jane told The Mirror and other press that she got "giddy" thinking about the potential comeback, but was at the stage of checking to see if it was possible.
So nothing is set in stone currently and no comebacks are imminent, but Jane is hopeful that she can convince one past character to return to the village at some point in the summer.
She explained, when asked about what was ahead for 2023: "We're storylining June at the minute. We are busy working on our summer storylines at the moment cos I always like to have a bit of a summer spectacular."
It's then that she was asked about any returns happening, following the brief comebacks of Aaron Dingle, Diane Sugden and Tracy Metacalfe in October.
Jane initially said no and confessed no returns were on the horizon for the time being, but she then remembered there were possible plans for a comeback at some point.
She said it was an idea of hers, not necessarily one that will end up happening but one that viewers "will love".
Jane told us: "Ooh! I can't tell you! I can't say because I’m still checking. We are doing June storylines at the minute, and I had an idea the other day and thought ‘Ah, our viewers would love that’.
"But we have to wait. I got giddy then!"
Meanwhile, 2023 will also see teenager Cathy Hope take on a "challenging" and "emotional" new storyline, that hasn't been done by a soap before.
Jane said: "A lot of the youngsters have big stories coming up. You’ll see a really big story for Cathy, Bob's daughter, which is really emotional.
"It's her first big story and a challenging one, and I think one a lot of parents will connect with and one I haven't seen a soap do before so Cathy has a big story coming up."
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays.
